Centre for School Mental Health

Within school settings, there is both the opportunity and obligation to promote mental health for all children. The vision of effective School Mental Health (SMH) is one where a multidisciplinary group of professionals can offer services ranging from prevention to intervention, effectively removing barriers to learning and promoting mental wellbeing. Unfortunately, the reality of SMH has not yet caught up to the promise. Evidence-based practices are not implemented routinely, a comprehensive approach is lacking in most jurisdictions, and data-informed decision-making is virtually non-existent. The Centre for School Mental Health at Western University addresses those gaps between research, practice and policy. The Centre seeks to promote an expanded concept of SMH through innovative research partnerships, high quality training opportunities, and a commitment to knowledge mobilization.

This paper describes the Alaska Fourth R collaborative, a multisectoral group of agencies (including education, health and human services, the violence against women sector, the governor’s council on domestic violence, and an external evaluator) that successfully planned, implemented and evaluated a multi-focus health education program statewide.

Reducing stigma about mental health – empowering people to make a difference

A team of Western graduate students, Robyn Masters, Richelle Bird and Michelle Quaye, worked as part of the larger Global MINDS initiative this summer in Machakos, just outside the Kenyan capital, Nairobi, tackling mental health stigma.
Masters and Bird, PhD candidates work under the supervision of Susan Rodger, Principal Investigator, Centre for School Mental Health and Associate Professor at the Faculty of Education, Western.